Tiger Baseball Season Ends With LossELKHART — Andy Manes watched his Warsaw Community High School baseball team get better from the first day of his first season to the last.
And that’s what the coach focused on following a 10-6 loss to Northridge in the semifinals of the 2019 IHSAA Class 4A Elkhart Sectional Saturday at Elkhart Memorial’s Charger Field.
“We made great improvements along the way,” said Manes. “We started out OK. We hit a slump in the middle of the season.
“I told our guys we’re playing as good as we’ve played (in the sectional). Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. Whether it’s the weather or balls falling in, baseball’s a funny game.”
Manes said his team reached the point where it could be competitive every time out.
Graduation will take four starters — Josh Ehrlinger, Ian Glogovsky, Liam Patton and Matt Shoemaker — plus Drake Graham, Tyler Hitchcock, Aric Krallman, Mason Reber, Avery Remocaldo.
Manes said he expects the returning players to keep working.
“We want them to play somewhere this summer,” said Manes. “We’ll also be working out at Tiger Field.”
Warsaw (11-15) trailed Northridge 4-0 with one out in the second inning when a 91-minute rain delay came along Saturday (the contest began at 1:22 p.m. and concluded at 5:06).
“We just tried to keep them loose,” said Manes of the approach of he and his assistants toward the players. “We knew we are going to score runs.
“We have a good offensive team. We knew we weren’t out of it. We just had to pitch and play ‘D’ and, for the most part, we did that. We got a little shaky there at the end.”
There was production up and down the lineup for Warsaw.
“Guys are finally beginning to understand their roles,” said Manes.
“We got down some bunts today and set things up for guys who can really hit.”
The Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the second, gave up one in the top of the third then tallied three in the bottom of the third to forge a 5-5 tie.
In the Warsaw second, junior Noah Burgh singled to center and later scored on sophomore Joey Springer’s sacrifice fly to right.
Shoemaker reached base via error and scored on Hutcherson’s one-out double to left.
Patton singled to left and scored on Burgh’s one-out double to center.
Burgh trotted home on Springer’s two-out single to right. Springer scored on Hutcherson’s single to left.
Northridge tallied five runs in the top of the seventh then gave up one to Warsaw in the last of the seventh before reliever Davis Enfield nailed down the victory.
Patton, Burgh and Hutcherson had two hits each. Hutcherson drove in two runs and Burgh scored three.
Warsaw had runners on base in every inning and stranded seven of those.
The Tigers used three pitchers — Springer into the sixth inning, lefthander Hutcherson for 2/3 of an inning and Graham for 1/3. Springer took the loss and gave up eight hits and six runs with two walks and two strikeouts.
Northridge produced 14 hits, including three by senior Ben Becker and two each by senior Logan Pratt, juniors Drew Gayler and Nick Logan and sophomore Ethan Huffman. Becker and Reece Lueking drove in two runs each. Lueking belted a two-run home run to center field in the second inning before the rain delay.
“That’s a really good team we just played,” said Manes after his team’s third loss to the Raiders in 2019. “They were 12-2 in the (Northern Lakes Conference) and there are some pretty good teams in there.”
